Guidelines On Writing For Juice

There’s nothing we like doing more than working on new music written just for us! We’re a relatively unusual line-up, being Soprano (Anna), Soprano (Sarah) and Alto (Kerry) – or just three female adult singers, if you like – and so almost entirely perform commissions and our own work.

Pitch Ranges:

It’s important not to write outside our ranges, which are below. Please also remember:

Only use the outer ranges very sparingly

Very high notes are best sung LOUDLY

Don’t write lots of words, and especially not lots of important ones, at a very high range. They simply won’t be heard.

Anna – Middle C (C4) to C6 (two octaves above)

Sarah – A below middle C to top B (two octaves above)

Kerry – E below middle C to D (one octave above middle C)

More thoughts on range:

You don’t have to think of Anna always being the highest, Sarah in the middle and Kerry at the bottom. Feel free to occasionally move us around a bit. We can also blend really well as a group if we are all singing very similarly-pitched, overlapping material, or are sharing a range of pitches.

Style:

We sing in all sorts of styles, from experimental classical to folk, jazz and pop. We also make all sorts of sounds that might not be considered conventionally musical, such as:

Laughing, crying, gasping

Speaking, whispering, shouting

Breathy sounds

Any sorts of percussive vocal sounds

Broken up bits of words

Imitating other sounds or instruments

We are happy to do a bit of body percussion or perhaps use a prop or simple bit of percussion

How to set your words:

Aim to focus on setting a small amount of text, and really explore the meaning and the sounds of those words or phrases. Don’t feel that you have to set all of a text, or set it in the same order that it has been written in. You might also like to explore breaking up words into individual sounds.

How to set words by others:

If you’re wanting to set words by a poet or author of any kind, you must get permission to use the text. The publishers might want a fee paying or might not even grant permission at all, in which case we wouldn’t be able to perform it.

How to notate your music:

We mostly read notated music (write it as a score, no parts necessary); remember that the words/syllables go underneath the notes and all dynamics and expression marks over the top!

If you are using unusual vocal sounds and are unsure how to notate it, just make it very clear by using instructions over the top, as well as distinctive note-heads.

However, we are also happy to read graphic scores (pictures, symbols) or read from a sheet of text instructions.

Things to avoid:

We love all sorts of extra vocal techniques and pride ourselves on doing them – however, steer clear of super-breathy material for long periods and anything that might be painful like prolonged loud in-breaths, etc. Also, please don’t write us an opera scene – it’s a cappella pieces we’re looking for.

If you’re unsure about anything, just send us an email or a tweet and we’ll be happy to help!